‘Discriminatory and Hateful Behavior’: Nebraska Dem House Candidate Fought Measure Preventing Minors from Receiving Sex-Change Surgery

Denise Powell called a law protecting kids from irreversible surgery "discriminatory and hateful." Read that twice. Nebraska passed a measure to stop minors from getting sex-change operations, and the Democratic nominee running to represent the state's Second District fought it. Not amended it, not asked for a carve-out. Fought it.

This isn't some abstract culture war talking point for us. It's a fourteen-year-old and a scalpel. Most parents, regardless of party, understand instinctively that a kid who can't get a tattoo without permission shouldn't be undergoing permanent surgical alteration of their body. Nebraska lawmakers agreed, and they weren't exactly a fringe outfit doing it. This was a real legislative fight with real hearings, and Powell picked her side.

What's telling is the language she reached for. Not "I have concerns about the age threshold" or "I'd have written it differently." She went straight to "hateful," the rhetorical equivalent of ending a conversation before it starts. That's not how you talk about a policy disagreement. That's how you talk about people you've already decided are beyond persuading.

Voters in that district deserve to know this before November, not after. A House candidate's instinct on an issue this personal, this permanent, for actual children tells you plenty about the judgment she'd bring to Washington. Nebraskans should ask themselves whether "hateful" is really the word for a law built to slow down doctors, not speed up hate.